Director Kar-Wai Wong was shooting the ending and editing the film a little over a week before its debut at Cannes.
Filming was shifted from Beijing to Macau after Chinese authorities demanded to see the completed script. Director Kar-Wai Wong never used scripts.
Maggie Cheung wears a different cheongsam dress in each scene. There were 46 dresses in total, though not all made it to the final cut.
Though Alejandro G. Iñárritu and his wife saw this film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000, 20 years later he was still so moved by that he describes how after viewing it they "walked in complete silence for almost 10 minutes. We suddenly stopped by the sea. Maria hugged me and started crying inconsolably on my shoulder. And I did the same on hers. 'In the Mood for Love' had left us speechless and deeply moved. It was that moment that reminded me why... I wanted to become filmmaker."